A self-confessed smart aleck, radio host, documentary maker and author, John Safran makes a point of poking people and getting himself into difficult situations.
But being Jewish and hanging out with neo-Nazis begins to take its toll after a while. As do text threats.
“Things got to me, definitely,” he acknowledges as we meet at his local café in the heart of Melbourne’s Orthodox Jewish community. It’s something of an understatement, I suggest.
Halfway though his startlingly good, stereotype-smashing new book Depends What You Mean by Extremist (out May 1), Safran starts to carry a concealed knife.
“I’m going through the madness and everyone’s contacting me all the time and I’m getting paranoid,” he says. “Some of the messages pinging on my phone were threats.”
Read the full article by Stephen A Russell at The New Daily.